Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment, as examples. Semiconductor devices are typically fabricated by sequentially depositing insulating or dielectric layers, conductive layers, and semiconductive layers of material over a semiconductor substrate, and patterning the various material layers using lithography to form circuit components and elements thereon.
It is generally desirable for semiconductor devices to operate at a fast speed. Further, it is generally desirable to reduce a size of semiconductor devices to increase device density and allow increased functionality of the electronic applications. These two features can sometimes be at odds. Some features of a semiconductor device, when reduced in size, may actually result in a slower speed. Solutions that can achieve both fast speeds and reduced size are desirable.